


The Long Day Is Over

by leobrat



Category: Friday Night Lights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-20
Updated: 2008-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 06:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1636469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leobrat/pseuds/leobrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It seems there's no one in the world that just can't help but love Tyra Collette. (Lyla/Tyra)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Long Day Is Over

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Luna for the beta! Set near the end of Season 3.
> 
> Written for llaras

 

 

Lyla kicks off her dyed-to-match-her-dress magenta heels and gratefully wiggles her toes. It has been a loooong day, starting at 7 am and meeting at the nail salon (Angela had treated the entire bridal party, which was very nice of her), and then back to the Collette's house, where each of the girls was passed back and forth between friends of Mindy's who had been designated to do hair, make-up, and zipping each of the nine bridesmaids into their strapless, pouf skirt, polyester magenta gowns (Tyra's dress, as the maid of honor, was Pepto-Bismol pink). 

Lyla was a little surprised when Mindy'd asked her to step in as a bridesmaid a few weeks ago, when she had a falling out with one of the girls from her work, but she had to admit, she was touched to be included. She'd grown closer with Mindy, and found her to be very funny and very sweet, and very honestly, genuinely in love with Billy. 

But it's been a long day, because after the never-ending task of getting all the girls ready, there was, of course, the actual wedding, with a combined ceremony and reception at the Elks Club. Lyla thinks that Tyra probably had a big hand in picking out the groom and ushers' wear, because Mindy probably would have picked ruffle-front tuxedoes, maybe in varying shades of pastel. The guys all had classic black suits, with Billy having a white tie instead of black, with magenta-colored rose boutonnieres to match Mindy's flowers. Her heart did a little flip flop when she'd marched down the makeshift `aisle' (which was really just a path cleared between the round cardtables) and saw her boyfriend standing at the end next to his brother, as best man, as suave as she'd ever seen him. And it looked like someone had even forced him into a haircut that morning. Probably Tyra. Because he didn`t have split ends sticking out from every possible angle, and it was slicked back and neat.

Because somehow, Tyra has managed to be in three (or sometimes six) places at once for the past four weeks. She's been managing this wedding, and from the looks of the posters around school she's going to be putting on one helluva Christmas dance in a few weeks, and now everything has been pulled off- she's even managed to make sure that no one in the very extended Riggins and Collette families that have crawled out of the woodworks for this shindig started a brawl or impromptu striptease or anything else that might cloud Billy and Mindy's special day. And *that* is no small feat, considering Angela's cougar younger sister looked like she had gotten her dress from the back room at the Landing Strip.

Lyla lolls her neck back and forth to work out some kinks, and takes a survey of the room. Tim is tucked away in a corner with Jason, bouncing his fat, happy baby boy on his knee. Lyla was so excited to see him, and she knows that it does Tim a world of good to see his godson. She has to take a step back and smile at the man Jason Street has become- she'd always known he would be a great man, but he'd really outdone everyone's expectations, probably even his own. Billy and Mindy are slow-dancing to Patsy Cline over by the jukebox. Bless them both, but those two really might make it in the end. Lyla sincerely hopes that they do.

And then there's Tyra, holding court with a few of her sister's friends and cousins over at another far table. They've gotten a pretty competitive game of Texas Hold'Em going (playing for nickels and dimes, she knows better than to let any serious gambling break out). She really is something else, the way she commands a crowd, commands a room, tells everyone to smarten up or else, but it seems that there's no one in the world that just can't help but love Tyra Collette. Landry Clarke, the amount of crap that that boy puts up with from the entire Collette family, there's no denying that he's head over heels for Tyra, and would literally do Anything for her. And Tyra, she takes advantage sometimes, but there's no mistaking the fierce loyalty and love she has for that boy, right back. She's clearly the apple of her mama's eye. And with a glance sideways around the room, Lyla's eyes fall on Tim, and he's lost in a faraway thought, looking over in Tyra's direction, going through about a thousand versions of `What Might Have Been', Lyla is sure.

Oh sure, she knows Tim loves her. And she knows that they've been good for each other, that they've grown past what brought them together- Jason, and the accident, and at first, just all-consuming lust. But there are just some parts of Tim that she'll never get. 

She's seen it happen, when Tim screws up (and he still does, though the boy is trying). Lyla tries to coddle him, tries to heal him with love, where Tyra would have just rolled her eyes and snapped, "Timmy, quit being a jackass." And it worked, every time. It's hard not to hop to when you hear from Tyra Collette.

Sometimes, it hits her, and she just thinks back on some random memory of Pantherama last year, that crazy week, with sweaty boys complaining about this or that, and ninety degree heat in classroom they had to practice in, and also, somehow, having one of the best times she could remember, laughing with Tyra as they `choreographed' the boys routine, joking around, and the warm, close embrace they'd shared when they finally pulled it off.

It wasn't like that at the time, of course, but Lyla'd been a cheerleader long enough to know when a hug was fake, and when it came from a deep place in your heart. Tyra held her like something precious, something true. And somehow, when it's late at night, and Lyla's lying in bed at her dad's apartment alone, when she's most quiet with her thoughts, that's what she thinks about. Not Tim and his hard, American muscle, not Jason, and that first oh-my-gosh-this-is-really-happening kiss, she just thinks of Tyra, and being in her arms for only a moment, and it warms her all over.

A cold, long-necked beer bottle is plunked down in front of her, and it's the tall blond lady herself, sitting down and grinning. "Hey Garrity, how's it going over here?"

"Hi Tyra," Lyla smiles back, slowly, heat rising in her face, trying to shake her thoughts and memories. "What a day, huh?"

Tyra nods in agreement. "Yeah, what a day, kid." And as she clinks her own beer bottle in salute against Lyla's, their fingers brush, only for a second.

And Lyla is warm all over. 

 


End file.
